Puzzle Notes

Hello all!

We're excited to bring you a cryptic debut from very fun word expert Ben Zimmer today. It's full of awesome vocabulary and humor. There are some tricky moments, but persevere and you'll be richly rewarded.

From our constructor: Ben Zimmer is a linguist, lexicographer, and all-around word nut. He is the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal, chair of the American Dialect Society's New Words Committee, and vocabulary judge for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Lately he has been constructing crosswords for Slate and contributing to the Crossword Craze project.  

We hope you enjoy the puzzle! Stay tuned -- I made you a variety cryptic for July 4th, which will hit your inbox in two weeks.

Happy solving,
Steve + the AVCX Cryptics team